Having one perfect thing was less important than having a range of ideas, realizing they were all taking you in a certain direction.

In America, people rarely stay in the town where they grew up, rarely stay in close proximity to their parents throughout their lives. You rarely find parents in their old age being taken care of by their children.

My education was an education by movies.

Movie narration in the forties was radically different than the narrative involved in books.

Style and taste do not have anything to do with the other. It's the difference between wit and humor.

Everybody thought New York was this hard, cruel place, and I found it to be an extraordinarily wonderful place filled with the most interesting people.

It's interesting that there are places that words can't get to.